BEING CYRUS Directed by: Homi Adajania Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Boman Irani, Simone Singh UK release date 24 March 2006

Being Cyrus snakes into an intriguing psychological drama, but unravels almost like a quaint comedy. The six colorful characters play against each other in a bizarre opus of repartee. Dinshaw Sethna is a dope-smoking retired sculptor, who lives in the secluded hills around a small hill station called Panchgani. Dinshaw opens his house to a stranger, Cyrus, who gratefully accepts his invitation.

The tale revolves around the rather dysfunctional Sethna family and swings between Panchgani (Katy & Dinshaw Sethna's home) and an old dilapidated building in Mumbai (where Dinshaw's aged father, Fardoonjee Sethna, his brother, Farokh, and Farokh's wife, Tina, live in apparent conflict). As Cyrus befriends and enters into the family as Dinshaw's sculpting apprentice, all the cracks begin to open. The layers unfold and things do not seem quite right. What's more is that nothing about Cyrus seems quite right either.

Being Cyrus journeys through mind-spaces, though it lends itself as a great new take on classic Film Noir. And although it aims to take the audience on a confusing goose chase, we are left in uncertainty for some time about the crimes committed, and the end ties up conclusively apart from the protagonist's own predicament.

Being Cyrus is an English language film directed and co-written by Homi Adajania. The story is narrated by the protagonist, Cyrus, who himself sits at the brink of his dilemma of why life is the way it is.

The uniqueness of Being Cyrus lies in the originality of the story, the novelty of its Parsi family backdrop (a small minority in a microcosm of cultures in India) and the distinctive look of the film, it's a thought provoking film that will take the audience through a journey of emotions with alarming twists.